Thunder
by DeborahsFrench
Summary: "Thanks for last night, for being my knight in shining armour." - One-Shot


**Thunder**

Rain lashed against the window as if it were using it like a drum. Thunder crackled throughout the sky and lit up the bedroom of Derek Morgan and Elle Greenaway's home. The first was still fast asleep, not even acknowledging the storm going on around him. The latter, silently cringed every time the lightning reared it's head from the sky.

Yes, Elle Greenaway hated to admit it, she was terrified of storms.

It always had something to do with when she was a little girl. Surely all children had a fear of storms, but Elle used to be so scared of them that she would stay up and cower in her fathers arms, even long after the storm had passed. But the night her father died, a terrible storm happened. That was the night she found out her father was dead. All night she cried, out of fear and pain, longing for him to come and hold her tight. 'I hate you, Daddy!' played over and over in her head.

A single tear slid down Elle's face as she tried to calm herself. _Come on, it's a storm, not anything else! You work in the FBI and you're afraid of a storm? Pathetic! _

Heavy snores still came from the sleeping figure laying down next to her, and she tried her best to forget the storm and fall back asleep. It did not work.

And then she heard it. It was faint, but there was a noise of something or someone downstairs.

Her whole body went rigid.

Flashing back, her mind remembered what happened last time she was invaded in her home: _Last time you sent me home, Hotch, you got me shot!_

Elle panicked, and turned to her fiancé, shaking his arm as best she could while trembling. Eyeing out where his gun normally was at the bottom of the wardrobe. Morgan's snores became heavier, as if he were only falling into a deeper sleep, so Elle tugged him harder.

"Derek! Derek, wake up!" She repeated, utter fear in her voice.

Sounds filled her head. Creeping stairs, one by one getting closer to her, and Elle panicked even more.

"Derek Morgan, wake up right now!" She pushed him with one almighty heave.

Shooting up in the bed, his dreams disturbed, Derek looked to the panicking brunette beside him, "Elle, what's up?" He asked, wrapping his arms around her sobbing form, "Sshh, calm down and tell me what's wrong?"

It took her a few moments before she stuttered out, "The-There's someone d-downstairs."

"Elle, there's no one downstairs." He assured her, wrapping his arms around her again.

"No, I heard someone. There's someone downstairs."

Placing a soft kiss on the top of her head, he rose from the bed, "Okay, stay here, alright?" Picking the gun from the bottom of the wardrobe, he took the safety off and handed it to her, "You know what to do." He lent forward and gave her a more passionate kiss before closing the bedroom door and walking down the hallway.

He crept down the hallway, checking the corners of the guest room and the bathroom, before carefully creeping down the stairs. At the bottom of the staircase.

Nothing looked out of place.

He still checked every corner of the house, behind every door. There was no sign of anyone in the house. Both the front and back doors were closed and everything seemed fine. Then his heart constricted in his chest; the kitchen window was open. It was only a crack, but it was enough to scare him.

Someone must have been in the house if it was open.

Quickly he turned all of the lights on downstairs, no one was there. Only him.

And then he heard it. The softest sound.

_Meow._

His eyes locked onto a small grey tabby cat, sitting next to the corner of the couch. Sighing with relief, he walked over to the cat, and stroked it gently. Once he realised that it was not startled by his touch, nor did it lash out, he picked it up.

"Hey." He stroked it's head while looking for a tag. "You gave Elle quite a scare you did."

The cat only nuzzled it's head further into his top, getting comfortable before closing it's eyes to sleep again. Morgan yawned and smiled at the cat before calling back up the stairs, "Elle. No one's here, you're safe to come downstairs."

The quiet steps of Elle crept through the hallway and then padded down the stairs, Morgan could tell she was still scared stiff, gun clutched in her hand in case it was a set up. Carefully he took it from her, and clicked the safety back on, before putting the kitten in her arms.

"Now look what had you so scared." He told her, gently stroking the kitten's head.

Elle stroked the kitten as well, before looking into Morgan's chocolate brown eyes with her watery ones, "Sorry, I just panicked."

"It's okay." He wrapped his arms around her and gave her a soft kiss, wiping her tears with the pad of his thumb. "We should get back to bed. I'll come up with something for the cat in a minute."

"Does she have a name?" Elle asked, Morgan only shrugged.

"Your guess is as good as mine, she has no tag."

He walked into the kitchen and scooped out a deep bowl from one of the cupboards and filling it with some milk before popping it into the microwave to take the initial chill off of it. While he was waiting, he closed the kitchen window, checked the doors one last time before removing it and heading back up the stairs. Turning the lights off as he went.

"You didn't like the storm either, ey?" Elle asked as another bout of rain hit the window followed by some thunder and lightning. "It's okay, you're safe now." She patted down the cat's soggy fur.

Morgan listened in the door for a moment, before gathering a towel from the bathroom.

"Sshh, I'm scared of the thunder too." Elle whispered to the shaking cat, "But Derek's here, he won't let anything happen to either of us."

Puzzled, Morgan wondered since when was Elle afraid of storms? Was that why she was awake and heard the cat, because she was afraid of the storm? Why hadn't she woke him before then?

Cautiously, he opened the door, and laid the milk on the bedside table, handing Elle the towel, "We need to get her warm otherwise she will get sick." He looked at his fiancé with sympathetic eyes. Eyes Elle did not fail to notice.

"What?" She asked, looking up from stroking the towel over the kitten's slowly drying fur, a small smile on her face.

"Nothing, just thinking about Clooney." He sat down on the bed and Elle ran a hand over her back.

"Sorry." She gave him a kiss on the lips.

"It's fine. How's our visitor doing?" He looked towards the cat.

"She seems to be getting warmer. And more sleepy." Elle stroked her hand over the cat's head.

Morgan picked the bowl of milk off the side and laid it carefully on the bed, holding it so the kitten could drink without spilling it, "We'll have to ask around tomorrow, see if anyone knows who's she is."

"Yeah." Sadness flashed in her eyes.

Morgan cocked his head to one side, "Don't tell me you wanted to keep her."

Giving a small smirk, Elle looked into his eyes, "What's wrong with that?"

"We'll see about getting a kitten, but for now, we'll return her to her owner tomorrow." Nodding, Elle went about trying to set up a bed for the kitten.

They ended up just emptying out a side draw and stuffing it with some blankets. Carefully, Elle wrapped the kitten up in the blanket and turned off of the bedside lamp, settling in Morgan's arms. More thunder crackled and lightning lit the room up. The tiny cat did not stir, Elle on the other hand was caught off guard and jumped slightly. Morgan's hold on her stayed firm.

"Why didn't you mention you were scared of storms?" He asked, kissing in her hairline by her ear.

Elle shivered, and then realised what he had said, "What?"

"I heard you, talking to the cat. You know you could have told me, there's nothing to be scared of." She nodded and felt him kiss her again.

"I know. It's fine, I'm over it." She informed him.

"But you know if you're ever scared, you can tell me."

It was definitely the calm after the storm the next morning, as the sun blurred into the bedroom. Softly, Morgan opened his eyes and took in the sleeping brunette's form besides him. Glancing up, he saw it was eleven in the morning. They had slept quite a while. Sort of.

Elle had stayed up until the storm stopped at five and Morgan worried if she would sleep at all last night, but she had fallen asleep eventually. Now he hated having to wake her up, especially when she had so little sleep. It appeared that he did not have too, as the kitten had also woken up, and was now snuggled on the bed next to Elle.

It purred slightly and then meowed, flicking it's tail with a single swish. Hitting against Elle's cheek.

Her eyes, in complete opposition to his, flew open at the sensation, almost as if she was terrified it was still storming. Welcoming the suns warm light, she rolled into Morgan's chest and hugged him.

"Morning." She grumbled softly.

"Morning is almost done. We've slept in. It's eleven." He informed her.

All Elle did was groan again, and pressed herself further into his chest. They laid like that for a further five minutes until Elle finally spoke again, startling Derek as he believed she was asleep again, "Thanks for last night, for being my knight in shining armour."

Morgan guessed that if he could see her face right now, it would be slightly reddened with embarrassment; Elle hated being needy. "It's not a problem. I am glad I was here. What's your fiancé for after all?" Gently he kissed the top of her head, "But we really need to get ready if we're going to find this kitten's owner."

They both pulled apart, Elle heading towards the bathroom to get showered and dressed, Morgan heading downstairs to put together some breakfast for them.

"How can no one have a clue who's the cat is?" Elle moaned, looking down to the kitten asleep in Morgan's arms again. "And why does it sleep all the time?" She laughed slightly.

"Maybe it's a stressed kitten, and it needs all the rest it can get."

"Stop profiling the cat, Derek." Elle scolded as they headed towards the last few houses on their block.

Morgan laughed as well, "Technically, if I was profiling it, I would tell you that it had been out in the rain all night, looking for it's way home, which is stressful enough, and she stumbled upon our kitchen window, taking refuge in our house for the night, and sleeping away all of the stress of the storm."

"You should change profession, maybe the cat FBI is looking for a kitten profiler." She nudged him in the ribs.

"Come on. Three left and then we have to make some flyers."

"Joy!" Elle replied, sarcasm rife in her voice.

They headed up the path to another house, one that looked like a replica of the one they had been knocking on all morning. If the numbers and some of the flowers outside were not different, Elle would have been convinced she was literally walking in circles and visiting the same house.

Three knocks, and then they waited.

A polished woman came to the door, looking as if she was about to go out on a run. Typical suburban woman really. Children's toys littered the house, as well as they had littered the lawn out front.

"May I help you?" She asked, impatiently, but smiling still.

"Oh, um, sorry. We were just wondering if you knew who this little one belonged to." Elle pointed to the cat snuggled against Morgan's chest.

Relief flooded the woman's face, "Ah! You found her, I was just about to go looking for her."

"So she's yours?" Morgan asked.

"Kind of."

Now both profilers cocked one eyebrow in synchronisation, "Kind of?" Morgan asked.

"Our cat, Lacy's just had a litter. We were waiting for them to get a bit older before selling them. Another six upstairs." She rolled her eyes, "That one ran away after Bethany - my youngest daughter, scared her, and left the front door open. I would have looked for her, but then the storm came." She held a hand to her heart, "I thought she'd been run over or something."

"No, she's perfectly fine. Tired, but fine." Elle informed her.

The woman nodded, "I can see that, although, being only a week old, she's bound to be tired."

Elle looked to Morgan, "Some kitten profiler you are."

"Listen, I'm only saying this on the off chance, but she seems to have taken a shining to you, and I think mixing her back with the litter would just mess things up. Do you guys want to keep her?"

Her eyes lit up like a child in a candy store, "Yes!" She looked to Morgan with a begging look.

"We would be honoured to."

"Okay." The woman took down some of their details, and they received some of her own as well, before she told them that the cat did not have to be paid for, and they could consider it an engagement present. Soon the couple were headed off home with their tiny baby in their hands.

"Who'd have thought this time last month we would be engaged and living together with a cat, eh?" Elle smirked at him.

Morgan lent down and gave her a kiss on the lips, "I wouldn't have wanted it any other way."

Pulling the keys from her pocket, Elle opened the house door, "I guess she needs some supplies, and a name."

"Yeah, We can get the supplies after a bit of lunch though. After all, we have been knocking door to door for the past three hours. We can discuss the name now."

Seating herself at the kitchen counter, as Morgan set about finding ingredients to make them a bit of lunch, Elle stroked the kitten's head softly. "Did you have any ideas?"

"Hmm…" Morgan pondered, as he looked in the fridge, "What about Thunder, after all, it was the storm that brought her here." He looked to Elle.

"Okay, any ideas for names that aren't: Thunder, Lightning, Rain or Storm?" Her head lolled to one side, both eyebrows raised.

"Nope." Disappointed, Morgan turned back to his quest for food, humming a small tune. Then he had a 'Eureka!' moment, "What about Melody?"

"No." She shot him down again, still petting the tiny cat.

"Belle?" The glare Elle shot at Morgan's back was deadly.

"We're not naming her after a Disney Princess." She informed him.

He spun around, back pressed against the counter, "Okay, smart alek, what name do you have for her?"

Elle pressed a finger to her lips, "Give me five minutes and I'll come up with one."

So he did, distracting himself by putting a pan of spaghetti on, and setting about making a small sauce, "Five minutes is up." He told her, as the kitchen timer rang.

"You set a timer on it?" Exclaimed Elle.

"You betcha, I did. Now what did you come up with, genius?" He smirked slightly, but tried to hide it.

"Flick."

"You cannot be serious." Morgan moaned.

Elle laughed, "Yeah, I am. Flick, that way you get your stupid Disney character name in there, and I get a girly name."

Confusion filled his face, "And what Disney character is this then?"

"Flick, from Bugs Life."

Making a sound of a buzzer, Morgan laughed, "That's Pixar, one of the small off companies."

"If you want it, stop talking now."

He shut up, going back to making lunch, then turned back around, "But how is that remotely girly?"

"Felicity." Elle informed him. "Yeah. Felicity is her name. You have no choice."

He did all he could, surrendered and turned back to making lunch, "We'll get some stuff from the pet store later." Once Morgan put the sauce on to warm, he walked over to the kitten and stroked her head, "Welcome to the family, Flick, Felicity, whatever. Good luck being home with crazy person over there."

Whacking him on the arm, Elle leaned in to kiss him, "I am not crazy." She told him.

"Sure you aren't…"


End file.
